


A New Future

by angstytimelord



Category: Hannibal (TV)
Genre: Gen, Soul-Searching
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-09
Updated: 2018-01-09
Packaged: 2019-03-02 19:37:34
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,154
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13325067
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/angstytimelord/pseuds/angstytimelord
Summary: Will contemplates the future he plans to have -- one that doesn't include the darkness that Hannibal brought into his life.





	A New Future

He didn't have to accept the plan that Hannibal had made for his future.

Will looked up at the bright blue sky above him, taking a deep breath. It was the first day of a new year, a year that he didn't have to live under the shadow of Hannibal Lecter.

Hannibal was in jail now, where he belonged. He was out of Will's life, and he would never be a part of it again. Will had sworn that to himself; this was going to be the start of his freedom.

He had lived under that shadow for far too long, and it was past time that he moved out of the darkness and into the light. Hannibal had forced him to look into that dark side of himself, and he hadn't liked what he had seen there. He had turned his back to it, rejected it, and walked away.

Yes, that darkness could be seductive. No one knew that better than he did. But he refused to let himself give in to that darkness, no matter how hard Hannibal pushed him.

He wouldn't let himself be goaded into a life that he didn't want. He wouldn't let Hannibal control him, or manipulate him. That had happened in the past, but no more.

Now, he was his own man. He would never let himself be manipulated again.

It had been so easy for Hannibal to pull the wool over his eyes for a while, because Will had trusted him. Now, he had leanred the folly of giving his trust to anyone too soon.

That was one mistake that he'd never make again, he told himself, raising his mug of coffee to his lips and taking a few sips of the hot liquid. He knew better now.

He had made it far too easy for Hannibal to manipulate him, to plan his future and assume that Will would simply go along with those plans. At one time, he had felt that he ddn't have much of a choice after Hannibal had backed him into the proverbial corner with no one to turn to for help.

But he'd fought his way out of that situation, and he was proud of himself for being able to do so. He wasn't going to be Hannibal's victim. Not any longer. Those days were over.

He knew the evil that he'd been up against, and he had soundly defeated it.

There was a part of him that urged caution, a voice in the back of his head reminding him that Hannibal was wily, that he could easily fool people, and that he wouldn't be kept behind bars forever. But he didn't want to listen to that voice. Not now. Not when everything was going right, for a change.

All right, he told himself, so maybe he _should_ listen to that voice. Maybe he needed to give it serious heed; maybe it was right, and it was only a matter of time before Hannibal escaped.

But for now, for this day, this moment in time, Hannibal was behind bars, where he belonged. And Will could believe, looking up at this impossibly blue sky, that things would stay that way.

Did he only believe that he had a new future ahead of him because he so badly _wanted_ to believe that? He needed to feel that Hannibal didn't dictate his life, that the rest of his days hadn't been irrevocably blighted because of the presence of such unmitigated evil in his life.

No. He truly believed that he had managed to change the course of his future.

He had removed Hannibal from his life, excised him as thoroughly as if he'd taken a knife and severed any kind of bond that the two of them might have formed. 

He didn't regret that in the slightest. It was what he'd had to do; he had _needed_ to remove Hannibal and his influence before he had let that darkness keep beckoning to him, threatening to draw him in and then devour him whole. He couldn't let that happen. He couldn't give in to his dark side.

If he did, then Hannibal would have won. He would have changed from the person he had always been, the person he was meant to be, into what Hannibal had wanted him to become.

Hannibal had only wanted a carbon copy of himself, and Will would rather die than become a killing machine. He wasn't meant to take life -- he was meant to preserve it.

His dark side was there -- he couldn't deny that. But it didn't control him.

He'd always known that the darkness was within him, of course. He'd never tried to deny that fact. He had even let himself access that darkness in his work for Jack.

But that time of his life was over now, too. He wasn't going to work for Jack any more. His usefulness to the team was done, and he wanted to live his own life, away from that stress and anxiety.

He'd given all that he could, all that he was willing to sacrifice. He had given a lot of years, and a lot of his mental well-being to Jack and his team. Now, it was time for him to do something for _himself_. It was time for him to live his life in the way that _he_ wanted to. 

Maybe some people would see it as being selfish, but he didn't. It was time to walk away from the past, to let the door swing shut on it. It was time for him to live for himself, not for others.

Besides, they didn't really need him any more, no matter what Jack might think. And he didn't need to redeem himself in anyone's eyes any longer. He had already done so.

His future lay ahead of him, open and full of possibilties.

It was a future that he wanted to fully embrace, and he couldn't wait to do it. He would still teach, of course. He didn't want to give up that side of his life, But other than that, his FBI work was finished.

It was time for him to erase _all_ of the darkness from his life. He might not know exactly where the future would lead him, but he knew that he didn't want to stay mired in the dark world that Hannibal had tried so hard to drag him into. He was meant for more than that. He always had been.

He'd been momentarily distracted, but now, he was back on the right track. The future stretched ahead of him, a new future, clean and shining, as bright as the sun in this blue sky.

Will took another deep breath, smiling as he did.

This was how it should be. A new year, a new day, a new future.

The future was racing to meet him, and he was welcoming it with open arms.


End file.
